We thought today for our interview, that we'd get an update on the angel investment environment here in Southern California from Scott Sangster , the incoming President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Tech Coast Angels , the biggest angel investment group in Southern California. Scott sat down with us last week and gave us some hints and tips about finding angel investment nowadays, and how the economy has affected local angel investors. It It seems that the economy hit angel investors pretty badly over the last couple of years, along

Luis Villalobos , the founder of the Tech Coast Angels , the largest and arguably the most influential angel group in Southern California, has passed away. Villalobos was instrumental in creating the Tech Coast Angels, which has been one of the most active groups in both investing, as well as mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs across Southern California. "His Villalobos was 72, and had been in the intensive care unit at St. Joseph's in Orange for treatment of a lung infection.

The Orange County Chapter of the Tech Coast Angels is promoting a program to help jumpstart small companies, O.C. Tech Coast Angels, the new program will provide seed funding, strategic planning, and execution of day-to-day functions of startups. The San Diego branch of the Tech Coast Angels launched their own TCA Seed Track effort way back in December of 2006, initially focused on both technology and biomedical firms; SeedTrack, building off of earlier efforts by the group's San Diego and other chapters. According to the O.C.

The Tech Coast Angels is stressing its mixer program, seed investment efforts, and a new website, as it kicks off a 2010 program, according to the angel investing group. According to the Tech Coast Angels' Richard Sudek, Chairman of the TCA, the group is looking to hold bi-monthly mixers which will help entrepreneurs connect with its angel investors, after a successful mixer in late 2009. The group also said it is focusing on its SeedTrack program, which is specifically focused on seed stage funding and extensive mentoring. The angel group

John Kensey's one of the original Tech Coast Angels and when I joined he volunteered to be my mentor. The life of an angel fund is longer than any of us thought, and returns have been meager, but now there's news of an IPO... Tags: Angel Investin Back in 2004 he was one of 3 partners who formed the Seraphim Sidecar Fund. Today it's fully invested and TCA talks about creating a new fund.

A new effort to spur venture investment in Los Angeles–called NITRO –has gotten under way, and is looking to bring together entrepreneurs with mentors and improve the quality of companies in the area.  The NITRO effort is pulling together a list of local mentors — including Robert Flynn (Modern Feed & Supply), Bryce Benjamin (Tech Coast Angeles, Language Weaver), Marc Averitt (Okapi VC), Suresh Nihalani (Clearmesh, Accelerated Networks, ACT Networks), Robert Siegel (X/Seed Capital, Stanford), Zareh Baghdasarian (Chromodyne, Monterey Networks,

Luis Villalobos, founder of the Tech Coast Angels, passed away yesterday , leaving a huge whole in Southern California’s technology and angel community. Luis — who regularly emailed me when I was  late sending out my daily email — exemplified some of the traits which make So Cal’s angel community an asset to entrepreneurs here. No, it’s not the Not only have I seen what Luis has done with local startups, but I even pitched him myself on an opportunity and saw how he operated–clearly looking not on “pass or go” on a deal, but instead, “how can we make this company a success”, “who can we bring in that can help this firm,” and “how can we help this entrepreneur get to the next level?”

No updates for Other & Indirect Job Networking Opportunities SoCal Networking Event Organizations Name: Networking For Professionals (NFP) Sites: www.networkingforprofessionals.com , Industry Insights Blog , Success Square/Coaching Blog , Events Blog , City Chat Blog , twitter.com/nfp_biznetwork Updated 2/22/10 by Todd Zebert Name: (Los Angeles) Geek Dinner Frequency/Location: From Heather "I officially closed it down at the end of last year for a variety of reasons: I was burned out on organizing and the LA geek community had changed." Updated